Re: Convert the svg files to pdf/eps for a project automatically.

[Hongyi Zhao]

On Tue, Jul 20, 2021 at 8:39 AM Hongyi Zhao <hongyi.zhao@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> On Tue, Jul 20, 2021 at 2:18 AM Arash Esbati <arash@gnu.org> wrote:
> >
> > Hongyi Zhao <hongyi.zhao@gmail.com> writes:
> >
> > > On Mon, Jul 19, 2021 at 4:22 PM Arash Esbati <arash@gnu.org> wrote:
> > >>
> > >>     2. Usage of package svg
> > >>
> > >>     The purpose of this package is to include standalone SVG graphics 
> > >> into
> > >>     a LaTeX document.  The command \includesvg is defined which does all
> > >>     necessary steps for this task. It first launches the export of a SVG
> > >>     file to a supported file format with Inkscape, if necessary, and
> > >>     includes the exported graphic file afterwards.
> > >
> > > If so, this step will also generate the supported file format by
> > > LaTeX, then all subsequent jobs will be done by graphicx package
> > > normally. So, I suspect that the svg package will invoke the graphicx
> > > package with the above command internally after the supported file
> > > formats have been generated correctly. If this is the logic used by
> > > the above command of svg package, then I can't see we need much job
> > > for writing something like graphicx.el for svg package, I mean, once
> > > the supported file formats has been exported with inkscape, all
> > > subsequent workflows, in essential, will be done by other packages.
> >
> > I'm not sure if I understand your text above.  For me the case is easy:
> > If you want to include a svg into your .tex file, you either transform
> > the svg file into a format which LaTeX understand (e.g. .pdf) in advance
> > and use \includegraphics to include it (i.e. \includegraphics{pdf-file})
> > or use the svg package and the command \includesvg
> > (i.e. \includesvg{svg-file}) which does the transformation on the fly
> > and in background and includes the file format which is understood by
> > LaTeX.
>
> This is exactly what I want to express. But unlike graphicx package,
> which support so many graphic file formats, so I also realized another
> point which may bring some inconveniences: we must keep in mind that
> which graphic files are supplied with svg format when we're writing
> the document.

OTOH, considering that svg is not the mainstream graphics file format
required by major academic journals, so I think the best way to use
SVG files in LaTeX documents is to pre-convert it to a format that
LaTeX can understand (for example, PDF) and then include it with
\includegraphics.

Suppose you use \includesvg in your manuscript and supply the SVG file
to the publisher, this means that they will do the conversion on the
fly with their LaTeX typesetting system and additional tool, i.e.,
inkscape, which, too, would inconvenience publishers.

Best, Hongyi